


Let Love Lead Us

by mitana



Series: Stay in the Car Chronicles [1]
Category: Scarecrow and Mrs. King
Genre: Christmas, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-01
Updated: 2021-02-01
Packaged: 2021-03-12 10:40:17
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,257
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29134188
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mitana/pseuds/mitana
Summary: Christmas 1986, slightly AU. Lee learns that not all traditions are good traditions, but all good traditions come from love.
Relationships: Amanda King/Lee Stetson
Series: Stay in the Car Chronicles [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2137956
Comments: 1
Kudos: 2





	Let Love Lead Us

**Author's Note:**

> Due to the Safer at Home/Stay at Home orders of 2020, I’ve been listening to a lot of streaming music and have discovered/rediscovered some artists and music that I have been listening to over and over. And of course, since I’ve also been reading and writing SMK fanfic, I started a Lee and Amanda playlist (admit it, some of you have your own lists, even if it’s only in your heads). I decided that the songs in my playlist were a kind of outline for a set of slightly-AU stories that I want to write. I was trying to think of a title for the series of stories and decided on a play on “Stay at Home,” SMK-style. Thus, the “Stay in the Car” Chronicles were born—having absolutely NOTHING to do with anyone staying in the car except US, the readers (and me the writer). 
> 
> I’d been trying to decide whether to try to put these stories in chronological order or just as they came to me, and then I heard a Christmas song that I felt had to come first (it is December 18, 2020 as I sit here starting this). So the stories are going to be in the same timeline, but will be a series of one-shots in no particular order; they will be loosely linked together, but should also be able to be read as stand-alone stories.
> 
> This one-shot is set around Christmas 1986, but the mystery marriage idea was never a serious plan (that will be dealt with in another story) and Amanda’s family knows the two of them are engaged. The song this is based on is “Love is Christmas” by Sara Bareilles, and the lyrics are at the end. It’s a beautiful song.

“You’re waffling.”

_“Waffling?”_ Lee looked at his fiancée. “What does that even mean?”

Amanda gave him _the look._ The look that she had perfected over years of being a mother, and lately had had to turn on her partner and fiancé with greater and greater frequency. “You know what it means; you just don’t want to admit that you’re doing it. You told the boys you’d come over--”

“Okay, okay.” Lee blew out frustrated breath. “Look, I’ve never really been a Christmas person. The Colonel never decorated, and my life up to now has been one where I was more likely than not out of the country on Christmas day. There’s never been a reason for me to decorate.”

He gazed at Amanda with an expression that caused her frustration with his equivocation to disappear. “The last time I decorated a Christmas tree was before my parents died. I don’t even—I wouldn’t even know where to start.”

Amanda adjusted her seat on the couch next to Lee, leaning forward and placing her hand on his cheek. She looked into his hazel eyes, rubbing her thumb back and forth near the corner of his lips. “Sweetheart, there are no rules to decorating a tree.” She grinned. “Well, there are some things that work better if you do them in a certain order, but no one is expecting perfection. Just do your best and they will appreciate it.”

He turned his head a fraction to kiss her thumb where it rested next to his lips.

“You don’t even need to do any of the decorating, if you feel that uncomfortable,” she continued. “We just want you to be there. The boys and Mother are looking forward to you coming over.” She brought her other hand up to his head and ran her fingers through his hair, brushing it back lovingly. “And I am, too.”

Lee let out his breath in a shaky sigh and leaned into her hand where it caressed his cheek. “I just don’t want to mess anything up. You’ve got traditions with your mother and your boys after all these years, and I sometimes feel like I’m just intruding on them.”

Amanda gave a little laugh that, if it had been anyone else, Lee would have called bitter. “Our traditions, as you call them, came about because of necessity. We kind of—closed ranks, I guess you could say.” Her hand on his cheek slid behind his neck, and she pulled his head forward to meet hers. With their foreheads resting against each other, she closed her eyes, then continued. “Joe was gone so often, and I was basically a single mother even though I was married. And then Daddy died, and Mother was alone…”

She sighed contemplatively. “Mother asked me a couple years ago if I thought we were providing the boys with the kinds of Christmas memories I had as a child. I told her I hoped we were. I know that there are all kinds of families, and I think we _have_ provided them with some good memories. But…Lee?”

She pulled back, opening her eyes and waiting for his to meet hers.

“Hmm?” he blinked his long eyelashes at her, and she smiled almost shyly at him, framing his face in both hands. She leaned forward, placing her lips delicately against his in a tender kiss.

Pulling back just far enough that she could again meet his eyes, she softly whispered, “I don’t want loss and necessity dictating our traditions anymore, for me _or_ for you.”

His hands rose and he gently grasped hers, pulling them away from his face and holding them tightly as he gazed into her eyes. A sad smile formed on his lips. “I guess that _is_ what has happened to both of us, isn’t it?”

She nodded slowly. 

“Well, then, I have a proposal for you.” His sad smile turned mischievous at the wording, and Amanda didn’t let him down with her response.

“Another one?” she grinned.

His left hand released hers and rose to caress her cheek. The mischief left his lips and blossomed into something beautiful.

“Let’s let love lead us.”

**SMK**

The radio was playing Christmas carols, a fire was lit in the fireplace, and the boys had finished wrapping the tree in strands of colorful lights.

“Here you go, Lee.” Jamie was holding an ornament out to him, and Lee looked over at Amanda. She shrugged and let him know wordlessly that it was his choice.

He thought of their earlier discussion at his apartment. _No more waffling. If we’re going to let love lead our traditions, then it’s time to start._

With a deep breath, he took the ornament from Jamie, who continued to look at him intently. He became aware that Philip and Dotty were also watching him expectantly. He aimed a curious look toward Amanda, whose gaze strayed to the ornament in his hand, then back to his eyes.

He took the hint. Looking at the ornament, he inhaled sharply. Tears formed in his eyes. The ornament was a small picture frame with the word ‘Family’ written along the bottom, and in it was a photo of all of them posing together. The boys had big grins on their faces, Dotty sported a happy smile, and he and Amanda were looking at each other with what he figured _anyone_ could recognize as complete adoration.

He recognized when the picture had been taken. He had given Jamie a tripod and a self-timer as his birthday present, and he had been experimenting with the gifts after his party was over. Apparently, some of the photos had turned out well.

“I—I don’t know what to say…”

“You don’t have to say anything, Lee, just hang it on the tree,” Philip suggested with a grin.

Dotty added her two cents. “Yes, we all agreed that you should put the first ornament on, since it’s been so long since you’ve decorated a tree. You shouldn’t have to wait a moment longer.”

Lee glanced at Amanda and noticed that she, too, had tears in her eyes.

“We thought you’d like the picture, Lee.” Jamie’s voice sounded a little unsure, since Lee had yet to give any verbal indication of his opinion of the ornament.

“I _love_ the picture, Jamie,” he reassured him. He took a deep breath and turned toward the tree, hanging the ornament prominently right in the front. He turned back around to face his family. “And I love all of you.”

**_Love is Christmas_ ** _written and performed by Sara Bareilles_

_I don’t care if the house is packed  
Or the strings of light are broken  
I don’t care if the gifts are wrapped  
Or there’s nothing here to open_

_Love is not a toy, and no paper will conceal it  
Love is simply joy that I’m home_

_I don’t care if the carpet's stained we've got food upon our table  
I don’t care if it’s gonna rain, our little room is warm and stable_

_Love is who we are, and no season can contain it  
Love would never fall for that_

_We sing oo,oo,oo_

_Let love lead us, love is Christmas_

_Why so scared that you’ll mess it up? When perfection keeps you haunted  
All we need is your best my love, that’s all anyone ever wanted_

_Love is how we do, let no judgment overrule it  
Love I look to you, and I sing_

_Let love lead us, love is Christmas  
Let love lead us, love is Christmas_


End file.
